Recently, the International Society of Biomechanics started a "Working Group on
Computer Simulation" (WGCS), in connection with the satellite symposium on this
topic adjacent to the XII-th I.S.B. congress in Los Angelos this summer.

Further details can be obtained from Andrzej J. Komor (WGCS-Secretary) from War-
saw University, currently on leave at the Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Univ. of California at Davis, DAVIS, CA 95616, USA, ,
Telefax INT+1.916.752-6363.

-------------------------

(2) E.S.B. Newsletter Editor change

The new editor of the Newsletter of the European Society of Biomechanics is
Prof.dr. Peter Walker, Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Royal National Ortho-
paedic Hospital, Brockley Hill, Stanmore, Middlesex, England HA7 4LP, Tel.
INT+44.1.954-0956. This year, two newsletters are scheduled, with deadlines /
newsletter mailing data 28 Feb 89 / 31 March 89 for the first issue, and
30 Sep 89 / 31 Oct 89 for the second issue, respectively. The following are
suggested items, with recommended lenghts of half a page (or less),

A rather expensive, but seemingly interesting "Handbook of Human-Computer
Interaction", edited by M. Helander (SUNY at Buffalo) was announced these days
by North-Holland in Amsterdam (ISBN 0-444-70536-8). Priced at US $ 258.00
(D.Fl. 490.00), it contains 52 chapters by 72 authors in xxxiv+1148 pages.
>From the publisher's brochure:

"This Handbook is concerned with principles of human factors engineering
for design of the human-computer interface. It has both academic and practical
purposes: it summarizes the research and provides recommendations for how the
information can be used by designers of computer systems. The articles are
written primarily for the professional from another discipline who is seeking
an understanding of human-computer interaction, and secondarily as a reference
book for the professional in the area, and should particularly serve the fol-
lowing: computer scientists, human factors engineers, designers and design
engineers, cognitive scientists and experimental psychologists, systems engin-
eers, managers and executives working with systems development."

(One might add, applied scientists in our field who wish to integrate biomech-
anics and kinesiology into clinically and rehabitationally useful and appealing
systems, from which the clinician or rehabilitationist is not scared away)

"In the first section, the cognitive and information-processing aspects of HCI
are summarized. The following group of papers deals with both software and hard-
ware issues, while the third section is devoted to differences in performance
between different types of users, and computer-aided training and principles for
design of effective manuals. The next part provides two important applications:
text editors and systems for information retrieval, as well as issues in com-
puter-aided engineering, drawing and design, and robotics. The fifth section
introduces methods for designing the user interface. The following section exa-
mines those issues in the AI field that are currently of greatest interest to
designers and human factors specialists, including such problems as natural
language interfasce and methods for knowledge acquisition. The last aspect in-
cludes social aspects in computer usage, the impact on work organizations and
work at home."

In short, this handbook seems to address many issues needed in making research
results in biomechanics and kinesiology practically useful, beyond the indivi-
dual researcher's labourious way of man-handling large amounts of data and
data processing methods.